The air was filled with an acrid yellow steam, and not for the first time in so many minutes, Yebb was glad that she couldn't smell anything through her helmet. Even if this place was ever free of the void and its incubus children, she doubted the smell would leave for some years. She imagined that it would become trapped in the ice only to appear again whenever the tunnels grew hot enough to cause a melt. Up ahead Adam took his first step onto the sizzling, bubbling carpet of red. The sound that his foot made as it squelched down, and the wet pop it made as he withdrew his foot made Yebb lightheaded.
She closed her eyes again trying to block out the sound as the rest of the SE soldiers followed their leader leaving a trail of pulverized wet sludge behind them. lining the wall, the glistening wet remains of the Incubus boils fizzled and hissed sliding down the walls as the connective tissue was burned away by krill's concoction.
It was really an impressive thing he managed to make and Yebb was reminded of just how smart the little Vrul was.
She almost wished she were as smart, krill considered this contribution and had no desire to follow them into the tunnels.
Adam continued to sweep the nozzle of his hose back and forth slowly over the floor before him, unwilling to miss anything on their way in. A group of marines kept watch at the back, walking backward over the flesh slush as they went deeper into the tunnel.
"Change up ahead." Adam Said
The group turned to nervously peer into the darkness unable to see past the first few rows in front of them.
Yebb leaned up craning her neck over the top of Jackie's head to see if she could spot what Adam was talking about. Just past Sunny's head, she thought she could see the point at which the walls and the floors changed. The sticky wet walls of the tunnel died off to be replaced by a thick meaty wall. As Adam passed his flashlight over it, yebb thought she could see the glistening lines of white connective tissue running over the expanse of red meat.
"This is horrifying." Adam said, somehow managing not to sound particularly horrified.
"What is that?"
"Looks like muscle maybe." He prodded the wall with the tip of his gun, and immediately stepped back as the entire wall flexed and contracted. Even from here she could see the bunching and contracting of muscle tissue as it shied away from Adam's touch.
Adam took a step back, "That is horrifying!" This time he actually sounded like someone who was horrified.
The walls continued to churn, and Yebb could feel a slow vibration rise up through the SE soldier and into her own armor.
"Ok, Am I the only one here who doesn't want to die in the sphincter of doom." Ramirez said as helpful as always.
Adam turned his head back to his friend, "The WHAT!"
"You heard me, look it's a long muscular tunnel that contracts, don't tell me the rest of you weren't thinking it."
Sunny sighed, "Oh great, void Anus, thank you so much for that image Ramirez."
The ex-marine crossed his arms, "hey we were all thinking it, I am just the one who said it."
"Technically." Adam began, "This isn't a sphincter, If it was it would open and close towards the middle not roll along the wall like that. What we are looking at more resembles peristalsis."
There was silence from the line behind him, "Oh I didn't realize you became a doctor while inside Behemoth's guts."
Adam shifted and leaned a bit further into the meat tunnel, "Peristalsis is the coordinated contraction of the muscle walls seen in the digestive system. So no Ramirez we are not in its anus, or even in its colon. I would wager to say we are walking into its throat."
There was a long silence following that, "Why did you have to go and make this just so much worse than it needed to be." That was Sunny, who stepped forward and prodded at the wall with her spear, "And this is clearly skeletal muscle, not smooth muscle Adam, so quit being gross." She examined the tip of her spear and then the wall which she had prodded, "Alright gas it and see what happens. If it doesn't close up, than we are going to have to continue."
Yebb did not want to watch, but even with her eyes closed she could sense the rolling contractions of the muscle as Adam poured the antidote on. She could imagine the walls writhing in panic and agony as they were burned.
"Alright, it seems clear."
Adam took his first step into the tunnel, one foot coming to rest heavily on the squirming muscle.
As he di, a noise rose up from deep below them. It was a loud groaning sound soemthing akin to a moan, but it had so much base that it made the walls rattle and shake. It echoed off the walls and bounced backward into the tunnels behind them, until meeting metal and bouncing back. In a way it almost sounded like the creature was both in front of them and behind them. Yebb gripped harder to her SE soldier.
"The fuck." Someone said
"Whatever that is, it sounds big ." Etium said, hefting his massive gun.
"Astute observation Captain obvious." Adam muttered
"do you want to call in reinforcements?" Sunny asked
Adam paused, "Yeah radio topside and have them follow after us. I don't want them going any further than the clot just in case soemthing happens past this."
They did as told as Adam urged them into the writhing tunnel. It was certainly a disturbing site, but the walls didn't close in on them, and after a few minutes of walking, they found themselves standing in a dark room eerily lit by the beams of their helmet lights. The room looked like it hat once been a locker room of sorts. Along one wall stood a line of metal containers, smeared with an unidentifiable and unknown blackish liquid. Under the grime, yebb thought she could see number plates winking I the darkness.
The floor here was mostly devoid of meat or blood, and past the grime and filth, Yebb could see greenish metal tile glittering I the darkness. A line of hooks hung along on e wall illuminated by a ghostly green light powered by glow in the dark crystal. It too was spattered in something unknown giving the room a mottled green cast. Open wires hung from the ceiling, ad through the hole, yebb thought she could see a line of flesh quietly growing its way through the walls.
Adam noticed too.
"it spread."
Thee team remained silent.
"Can you like, stop saying cryptic shit for five minutes please."
"Sorry I-"
"Everyone, look, over here!" The urgency in the voice was enough to stop their bickering, and the entire room turned to look. A beam of white yellow light fell away from one of the SE soldiers, cutting through the dead air and falling on a shape hunched in the corner. For a moment Yebb through the creature was alive, and staring at them, but then she gasped at the realization.
The Tricar sat slumped against the wall. He wore protective gear, complete HAZMAT with a suit and breathing tank. His goggles were yellowed with age making it impossible to see his eyes, not that it would have mattered since he had no eyes left. Two shards of bone protruded from his waiting eye sockets from where he slumped. Beside him a big dark hole had been torn into the metal wall and disappeared into darkness.
"is it."
"Alive?" Adam finished
"ZBest not to take any chances." And before anyone could stop her, sunny stepped forward, and with one powerful spear thrust, she impaled the tricar through the head. Yebb squeaked in shock, and the others remained surprised as the body slumped to the floor. Adam knelt down to examine the body, "Well I think its safe to say that whatever happened here didn't happen overnight." He used the barrel of his gun to roll the Tricar onto his back, "Looks like they were trying to stop what was happening, but they didn't have the knowledge to do so. They must have abandoned the place when it looked like a lost cause."
Ramirez tapped the wall, "Or it spread out of here and to the regular tunnels.
Yebb's fur stood on end.
"There is always that possibility yes."
That's when the shrieking noise came. Adam yelped and leaped back in shock, but he was too slow as the Incubus creature erupted out of the dark tunnel opening its legs held wide latching itself to the front of Adam's helmet. He flailed and fell over backwards as more of the creatures began to pour In droves from the tunnel. Adam was smarmed almost immediately and Sunny cried out in anger. Gunfire started up all around her and Yebb was paralyzed with fear. Etium stitched a line up through the wave of creatures, and Jackie managed to deploy her smoke.
The creatures began to writhe and scream and smoke as the antidote came in contact with their bodies. Sunny batted aside two of the creatures which leaped for her and speared two more through the thorax back to back. Jackie ducked and Yebb wasn't fast enough to duck with her, and the creature came flying out of the darkness, slamming itself into Yebb's faceplate. She screamed and only just managed to hold onto the marine who was turning and shouting and bucking like a wild animal. The creature's tail flailed in the air, and yebb found herself staring into the thing's circular tooth-lined mouth as its body thrashed back and forth.
Yebb screamed and batted at the creature. It wasn't as large as the other incubus had been, but it was long and it had more legs. Despite hitting it twice, the thing was attached onto her tight. She continued to scream and whirl around in a circle with the sound of gunfire. The creature dug its little prongs into her helmet. Somewhere a blue shield pulsed with energy.
And then something grabbed the thing by the ail. Ripping it from her mask and throwing it to the floor.
Yebb turned and Etium was there beating the creature's head in with the heel of his boot. Jackie was recovered now, and together the group of them drove back the invading hoard. Adam was still swarmed on the floor, but the blue glow she had seen earlier was coming from him. His armor was protecting itself, but shield wouldn't last forever.
Sunny roared and came charging forward, using the end of her spar like a golf club, batting the creatures off him left and right. Now that Adam could see, he used the double bladed knife, that retracted from his armor to cythe through three more of the creatures, and stab the one on his chest. The creature fell away and he was ble to jump to his feet.
The incubus hissed and withdrew back into the walls, but by that time Adam was having none of it. he raced forward and shoved the nozzle of his spray gun into the tunnel and pressed down hard.
The shrieking came from everywhere and nowhere, and yebb flinched as she thought she heard scuttling I the ceiling tiles over her head. Adam gassed them good, and it wasn't long before the screaming was dying away.
He stepped back breathing heavily.
"Alright, make sure to gas any holes that you see."
He looked down to examine his armor and seemed relieved to find it where he had left it.
"Alright time to keep moving."
Yebb would have liked to protest, but unfortunately no one else echoed her sentiment. The group was quiet and on edge after the attack, flinching at every noise and looking over their shoulders. The only one who seemed particularly calm was Adam who strutted at the front of the group like he did this every day.
And his façade was only broken when sunny asked, "Are you ok."
The man continued to strut forward , and in his most cheery voice said, "Nope."
Nothing they could do about that now. Yebb cowered closer to Jackie and prayed silently for it all to be over. She hoped mother ice would come to take her, hoped that she could join the Makers in the forever war because at least that would be better than this.
"do you guys hear that."
There was a pause as the group stopped to listen. Yebb tilted her head, and in the very far distance, just on the edge of her hearing she thought she could sense soemthing. It was less of a sound and more of a change in air pressure, but it was steady a sort of throbbing pulse like the thrumming of a generator.
She had a feeling it was something much worse.
"Sounds big." Adam muttered
"Big enough to be that thing we heard earlier?" Ramirez asked.
Adam sighed.
"Yep, so it seems."
Ramirez sighed, "This is going to be some bullshit."